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Rave of Thrones

Groan all you like hippies, rave is reigning supreme. This is going to be the summer of EDM.

To help you prepare for the Doof Onslaught, Ishkur has created this interactive guide to musical sub-genres. It’s really good – I started with “House”, then “Tribal”, the first track that came on was San Francisco’s Dubtribe Sound System, with a loop from their classic track “Hasta Luego Me Hermano”. You could spend hours exploring this thing. Plug your computer into your stereo and turn it up. Ishkur’s guide is at Techno.org.

Andy Samberg of SNL closed the season with this EDM parody. He’s in talks to play a Burner in a new UK TV series.

HBO are creating a new, Entourage-like show based on dance music culture. Calvin Harris, the #1 earning DJ in the world, has teamed up with Fresh Prince Will Smith and Roc-a-Fella Illumini Jay-Z to create the show. Trainspotting scribe Irvine Welsh will write the script and presumably they will all collaborate on what could be an epic soundtrack. Harris might even star in it…perhaps playing a DJ? From inthemix:

EDM’s coming to HBO: Calvin Harris on board to develop scripted comedy series

The series will be penned by Irvine Welsh, author of the seminal novel Trainspotting, and developed with the help of none other than Calvin Harris. We’re willing to bet that the multi-talented 30-year-old has quite a few stories to share from his seven-plus years in the industry, especially given his crossover success; the show’s concept conjures memories of some of Entourage‘s more debaucherous moments.

It’s not just Welsh and Harris who have been tasked with creating Higher… far from it, actually. The series is being created in conjunction with Overbrook Entertainment, Three Six Zero Group and Marcy Media, three companies with some very well-known names behind them.

Among the show’s nine – yes, nine – executive producers are Overbrook’s Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and Marcy Media’s Jay-Z. The trio is already working together on a film re-boot of the musical Annie, but Higher will be a different sort of endeavor entirely.

No word yet on whether Harris will appear on the series, but he’s already (sort of)shown off his acting chops in the music video for Ellie Goulding’s “I Need Your Love.” We’ll keep you up-to-date on Higher as the story around the show develops

EDM is pulling in the big bucks – it’s now a $20 billion market. Attendance at the Top 50 EDM events is more than double that of all other festivals combined.

The EDM market is a $15.0 to $20.0 billion global industry, with the major players in the global festival market achieving $4.5 billion in sales for 2012. Digital music revenues grew an impressive 9.8% in 2012 (IFPI, 2013).

While attendance at concerts and festivals for other music genres declined by 8.3% in the past three years, EDM has only prospered. The attendance for the top 50 EDM specific festivals was two times the number in attendance of concerts for all other music genres combined. The EDM genre alone reports a staggering festival audience of over 3.5 million people between the ages of 18-35, “who are young, highly inclined toward purchase, technologically facile, with significant disposable income,” making us the most marketable crowd in history.

When it comes to digital streaming, EDM continues to dominate over other music genres. Last.fm reported their aggregate number of unique listeners and plays per genre since 2012 and their findings are astounding.

Per Last.fm, the average number of Hip Hop listeners dropped from 7,000 in 2012 to 2,000 through July 2013, a 78% drop. Last.fm data shows that for the same periods, EDM as a total genre increased from 92,000 to 266,000, a 190% increase. Figures like these are powerful illustrations of the tsunami of new music dwarfing non-EDM related music content.

…In 2005, there were approximately 38,000 total tracks released globally via traditional labels across all genres. For the 6-month period ending July 2013, there were a total of 371,000 total tracks released in EDM alone…The numbers don’t lie and the truth is, EDM is driving the global digital music growth and international artist sales. EDM is not only at the forefront of the music industry but it’s conquering it completely.

According to Burning Man’s ticket provider TicketFly, social media ticket sales are 6 times as much as for EDM events as they are for plays, sports or bands.

The rising popularity of electronic music has led to it transforming seemingly overnight from a fringe genre generally associated with LSD, ecstasy, abandoned warehouse parties, and homosexuality, to over the top spectaculars brimming with sensory overload of every kind. In the process week long festivals like Ultra Music Festival, Electric Daisy Carnival and Coachella [and Burning Man – Ed.] have become household mega-brands. Their economic viability is very real; just one weekend can generate hundreds of millions of dollars for local economies and promoters. Although some events and promoters have close to 20 years of experience, the real acceleration only occurred in the last half decade.

…The internet and EDM remain joined at the hip, today social media is the primary ticket sales for electronic dance music festivals, concerts and club nights. According to a report by TicketFly, social media ticket sales for EDM events are six times higher than “traditional events” like plays, sporting and other music events.

Smartasset takes us through the numbers of some of the bigger festivals:

58% of ticket buyers are usually males purchasing just one ticket. TicketFly speculates that the sense of community among EDM fans decreases desires to pair up prior to purchasing a ticket.

Coachella…was cancelled in 2000 due to financial problems…In 2012 and 2013 the festival generated over $47 million in revenue…with over 50 electronic musicians

..in 2013 the festival generated roughly $500,000 in cold hard cash, or roughly $2.33 per pass sold, for the city of Indio, California. The economic impact of Coachella on the surrounding local economy is an estimated $254 million and is projected to grow for 2014.

…EDC 2010, held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, generated roughly $42 million for the local economy over the course of two days. In 2011 the festival moved to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and expanded its line up to three days. There the festival supported an estimated 1,400 full-time jobs and generated $136.4 million for the Las Vegas economy.

EDC 2012 …Over the course of three days the festival generated $207.048 million for the Las Vegas metro area, an increase of 57% from 2011. It also helped to support the equivalent of 2,018 full time jobs and over$84 million in labor income. … 108,000 of the festival’s 115,000 attendees arrived from other parts of the world and spent millions eating, dancing, drinking and occasionally sleeping in the surrounding area. To date Insomniac claims that they’ve generated $344.246 million for the local economy, which excludes EDC 2013. We estimate that the economic impact of the festival will be in excess of $500 million for 2013.

Ultra Music Festival, which offers multiple day passes for $399 and VIP access starting at $850. …The south Florida city has hosted the Winter Music Conference for 28 years, of which Ultra Music Festival is one of the 500 events underway over the course of ten days. In just one weekend Ultra, and its 165,000 attendees, generated $79 million in revenue for the Miame-Dade county economy. It also put $10 million in taxes into the coffers of state and local governments.

Burning Man’s public estimate is that they bring in $35 million to the Northern Nevada economy, or about $500 per Burner. There is also a broader economy that includes air travel, car and RV rental, groceries, fuel , booze. Not to mention all the pre-Burn shopping on Amazon, Etsy and eBay. If you estimate each Burner is spending $1000 minimum (including tickets), that’s $70 million. The average is probably higher, given that some art cars cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it’s $250 just to ride the bus. Call it $100 million.

Industry execs see EDM as a way of reaching the half of the planet’s population that is under the age of 30 – including 2 billion millenials.

The biggest name in the business, Live Nation, has been getting into EDM in a big way. They acquired a half share in EDC, and controlling interests in top US producer HARD Events and UK’s Cream Holdings.

LiveNation, the largest concert promoter in the world, views electronic dance music festivals as it’s greatest growth opportunity. In 2012 the promotion powerhouse raked in $3.9 billion and acquired a 90% stake in two EDM festival organizers: U.K. based Cream Holdings Ltd, and Los Angeles’ HARD Events.

Though LiveNation did not reveal the details of these acquisitions, Cream Holdings Ltd had an estimated $7.8 million in assets in 2011 according to the New York Times. This pales in comparison to the estimated $50 million paid by LiveNation to Insomniac Events for a 50% stake in the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) organizer. Both Cream Holdings Ltd (which organizes the famed Creamfields Festival in the U.K.) and Insomniac Events are established players in the electronic music scene, having staged events since 1993 and 1998 respectively.